The Good Stuff: La Herencia is an exclusive brand brought to you by cigar.com/cigarsinternational blended by the one and only A.J. Fernandez. A.J. is a master, and has been on a roll kicking out some of the last few years best cigars. The Dos Capas is a limited edition run and sports the same mold as the standard La Herencia Cubana which is composed from an all Nicaraguan mashup of tobacco grown in the Estelí, Condega, and Jalapa regions. The Cigar is then wrapped in a beautiful Ecuadorian Sumatra (same as the Cubana), only with a twist (pun intended). A.J. decided to have a little bit of fun and barber pole the wrapper with the Ecuadorian Sumatra and a deep, dark, Pennsylvania Broadleaf. These cigars run for $6.50 a cigar.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra/Pennsylvania Broadleaf  -  Binder/Filler: Nicaraguan  -   Body: Medium

Prelight: The La Herencia Cubana Dos Capas is a thick, rustic looking barber-pole style cigar. The wrapper is composed of two wrappers, a dark, brown oily maduro, and a medium brown, and orange oily wrapper twisted parallel around the body of thick cigar. There is only one larger vein running in both the maduro and lighter shade wrapper at around the same area. Despite being a barber pole cigar, its really durable and you can handle it pretty heavily without risking the delicate construction. The La Herencia Cubana Dos Capas is finished off with a huge, rounded, maduro double cap. The band is similar to most of the other bands in the La Herencia line. Red, brown, gold and white with a huge crest carrying the name “La Herencia Cubana” on the front, and a smoke red lion in the back.

The wrapper of the Dos Capas gives off a great, strong sweet tobacco scent while the foot gives off more of a timid chocolate and earthy aroma. The La Herencia Cubana Dos Capas cut clean and easy using my double bladed Colibri Cutter. The cold draw kicked out some nice chocolate and tobacco flavors along with a really neat earthy grain that I wasn’t really expecting.

First Smoke: The La Herencia Cubana Dos Capas starts out with just a ton of bittersweet chocolate, and sweet tobacco flavor. There is a bit underlying spice and pepper, but not a whole lot. This cigar tastes like it was dipped in melted Hershey bar. The Aroma from the stationary smoke compliments the chocolate, and tobaccos tastes perfectly. The draw is perfect, again filling my mouth with just enough thick, white smoke after only two puffs. The burnline is razor sharp and dead even leaving behind a trail of solid white and light grey ash. It will be interesting to see how well the burnline does as I get further into the cigar due to the crazy wrapper this cigar has. The ash held on for about an inch and a half before toppling into my ashtray.

Halfway There: The chocolate is still by far the dominant flavor. There is a bit more spice starting to creep its way in as well as a little cedar, and even honey. This is a sweet cigar through and through. The retrohale even produces an excellent chocolate priming with a ton of cedar mixed in there. The burnline is still perfect despite me thinking that the burn would start to go haywire at some point. The cigar is so smooth, and mild that I am feeling absolutely no nicotine even after the second third.

Finish: Even though this La Herencia Cubana Dos Capas is giving out some neat favors, it’s starting to lose my attention into the final third. It’s got some awesome flavors, chocolate, cedar, and spice, but nothing that really stands out nor are there any considerable changeups from the second third into the last. It’s a smooth, mild cigar. There is no nicotine kick, and absolutely no harshness into the final inch. The cigar took about an hour and a half to take down, and burned flawlessly with no touch ups or relights required.

Overview: This La Herencia Cubana Dos Capas is a great cigar. Well balanced, smooth, and sweet. It was just a little too smooth for my liking. This would be an excellent cigar for someone who is just starting out, or even a perfect morning smoke. I’d just stay away from it if you want a more robust, and complex experience. It’s definitely worth having around, but I wouldn’t run out and buy a box or anything.

Pairing: Since we are due for some snow in out chilly El Paso desert, I decided to pair this La Herencia Cubana Dos Capas with a New Belgium Snow Day. Snow day is an experimental Winter Warmer style ale brewed at the New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado. A year or so ago, the brew masters at New Belgium became snowed into the brewery. They did exactly what any good brew master would do, brew some beer! They created an experiment. Basically they hopped the hell out of a winter warmer ale and created an interesting Pale Ale style winter brew. That’s right. Interesting enough the beer comes in at 6.2% ABV and carries a very hoppy taste similar to most pale ales, but threw in some awesome spice, cinnamon, malt, and orange to give it this special winter twang. It made for a great pairing, but the entire time I smoked the cigar I kept telling myself “Man, this thing would go perfect with some black coffee”. Try it for yourself.

Diesel - Unholy Cocktail

 Diesel’s Uncholy Cocktail has made quite a buzz all over cigartown as of late. Not only does the fact that AJ Fernandez (creator of the Man O’ War series) concocted this elegant stick demand mass attention, but seeing these advertised as low as $2.50 a stick online could capture anyones attention.

I didn’t want to jump all over these sticks for fear of being let down, so I took a backseat and just listened to what a few of my colleagues had to say about it first.  After hearing nothing but great things from both Stogie Review, and Nice Tight Ash I decided to jump on the bandwagon and experience this one for myself.

The Good Stuff: I wasn’t able to pull out a whole lot of interesting information on this cigar outside of the straight backs. As stated before the Diesel was produced by the master mind Abdel “AJ” Fernandez, creator of the most intense of blends including the Man O’ War, Rocky Patel’s Fusion, Padilla Habano, Indian Tabac 10th Anniversary, and Sol Cubano Cuban Cabinet. The Diesel is only produced in one vitola, the Torpedo and consists of filler tobaccos from Jalapa, Condega and EsteliNicaragua wrapped with a dark Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper.

Size: 5 x 56  -  Wrapper: Pennsylvania Broadleaf  -  Binder/Filler: Nicaraguan  -  Body: Medium – Full

Diesel - Unholy Cocktail

Diesel - Unholy Cocktail

Prelight: The Diesel’s wrapper is incredibly silky and oily, even to the touch. The wrapper is very toothy and sports a very dark chocolate-like consistency. There was one partial wrap in mine cigar that was about 4 shades lighter than the rest of the cigar, but outside of that the colors were strictly uniform. The Diesel carries a long torpedo shaped cap that tapers off into a thick body. The portion where the head meets the cap of the cigar seemed to be just a tad thicker than the rest of the cigar so I actually had to pull out the ring gauge to find that this was just an optical illusion. Many small veins can be found scattered across the Diesel’s wrapper along with one larger, thick vein running almost the entire length of the cigar. The Diesel is very firm to the touch and only had one minor soft spot towards the cap, but it shouldn’t be anything to worry about. The Diesel smells very barnyard, and not the least bit enticing. But we all know that doesn’t mean it won’t be a remarkable experience. Most cigars don’t smell good. That’s why we don’t use them as air fresheners. Outside of the barnyard almost manure smell one could pull hay, and soft leather from the foot of this cigar. The foot of the Diesel is garnished with an almost midevil leather looking band with the words “diesel” embossed in it twice around. The band had little glue, and I was able to slide it right off withalmost no effort. The cold draw produced similar hay and leather tastes, with a hint of spice.

Diesel - Unholy Cocktail

First Smoke: The Diesel lit up extremely easy under my triple flame butane torch. The flavors were extremely abundant and intensely bold. I was able to decipher quite a bit of a cedar taste, with hints of black cherry, leather, coffee and just enough pepper to tickle my lips and the tip of my tongue. The draw itself was a bit tight and surprised me by how much flavor and smoke it produced. The smoke was a thick grey, and smelled off cedar and barnyard. This isn’t something you’d want to light up around a lot of people who aren’t into cigar smoking. The Diesel didn’t produce a lot of stationary smoke at all. The burnline on the diesel was razor thin and started slightly wavy but did a good job correcting itself early in producing a nice, thick, well packed white and light grey ash. I was pretty surprised when my first ash only lasted about 3/4 of an inch before it decided to give way.

Diesel - Unholy Cocktail

Halfway There: So far so good. The Diesel’s flavors are holding pretty consistently. The pepper has just about dissipated as well as the raw coffee I was pulling from the diesel early on and they have been replaced by a smooth, milky aftertaste. This cigar is producing quite a bit of moisture in my mouthwhich is helping me cope withnot having a drink to pair it with. The nicotine is starting to take its toll on me as well. It’s not flooring me by any means, but after about 30 minutes of smoking once can feel the blood rush to his head once he stands up. I’m impressed with how slow this cigar is burning. I would be at two thirds in on similar vitolas. The burn line is getting a bit off track again as I pass the halfway point, but it seems to be just one problem area about an eighth of an inch wide. I don’t think I will have to touch it up, it’s isolated enough that it should begin to catch up with the rest of the burn.

Diesel - Unholy Cocktail

Finish: Toward the end of the cigar I began to taste much more of the coffee flavor that I was sure had vanquished earlier into the cigar. The cedar and sweetness of the black cherry are still center stage as well as the smooth aftertaste that developed. Another surprise if the fact that there is no harshness built up what so ever. The cigar is still just as smooth as it was when I first lit it up. I am feeling a bit more of a nicotine kick that expected, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The burn line at this point is razor thin, and dead on without any need to touch it up. In total it took me almost 2 hours to finish this cigar.

Diesel - Unholy Cocktail

Overview:Diesel? I’ll take it.. for $3 a stick? I’d buy a box, or two, hell even three. This cigar was just as much of a shocker as everyone is saying it is. From its bold flavors and perfect construction to its great body and extreme consistency. This is the perfect cigar for a medium bodied cigar smoker who wants to try something with a bit more punch, but not enough to knock them off their feet. Not only that but I would strongly recommend the Diesel to the most seasoned cigar smoker as and everyday/anyday offering. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised and the diesel has its home in my regular rotation.

Diesel - Unholy Cocktail